Phil Starke Studio Newsletter

February 2015

I just finished the workshop in Tubac, AZ for Scottsdale Artists School. I want to thank everyone who participated. It was a good week, the weather cooperated pretty well. I want to thank the Agua Linda Ranch for letting us onto their property to paint, it was a great place. There is a lot to paint in that area, I look forward to next year.

I've finalized details for my upcoming workshop in New York City in September. We'll be spending a day studying work at the Metropolitan Art Museum and painting for 3 days in Central Park. More information on that in the newsletter below.

I'm getting ready for an upcoming show at the Grapevine Gallery in Oklahoma City in April, I'll be bringing some pieces from Wyoming and Southern Arizona. The California Art Club's Gold Medal Show is also in April, I hope to see some of you there.

Phil StarkePhil Starke Studio

The New York Workshop Has Been Scheduled

Details are up for the 2015 New York Central Park Workshop. The workshop has been schedule for Sept. 3, 4, 5, 6, 2015. I've added a fourth day to the workshop with the first day being a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where we will study the plein air and studio works of John Singer Sargent, Willard Metcalf, Corot, American and French impressionists. The goal at the museum is to glean some understanding of how these painters simplified, used values and broken color. There's a lot to learn at the Met so it's a great place to start.

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday we will be painting in beautiful Central Park. The subject matter is breathtaking with gardens, lakes, flowers and endless trees and figures. The quality of light is beautiful, whether it's sunny or cloudy. All the details are on the New York Workshops here: New York Central Park Workshop

Emile Gruppe on Values and Eye Fatigue

Emile Gruppe painted in and around Gloucester, Massachusetts in the early and mid 20th century. I saw a lot of his work when I was in Chicago and I really liked his strong color and bold brush work. Later I came to realize that it was his accurate use of values that made his paintings so strong.

While we're drawn to paintings by the use of color, it's the value relationships between the large shapes that make a painting work. When I'm unhappy with the color in my painting, 9 times out of 10 it's the values that are off not the color. When my values are off in my paining, it's usually because I'm looking right at the area I'm trying to mix, and the more I stare at the value the worse it gets. When I was told to look at the values next to the value I wanted to mix, then I could get the right value relationship in the painting. This is also true with color.

Gruppe described it as eye fatigue. He has a good paragraph in his book on color that talks about comparing values and color:

“You might think that the best way to analyze an area of color is to stare at it intently. But that's just the wrong way to do it. The longer you stare at an area, the grayer it gets. Your eye becomes used to the color; it fatigues; your sense of color dies. The only way to judge color (and value) of an object is to compare it with the color of objects near it.”

"Let's say, for example, that you want to determine the color of the sky at the horizon. It can be anything from purple to green. But to see it, you should first look over your head for a few seconds at the color of the zenith. Then quickly lower your eyes. For a few seconds , you will see vivid color near the horizon. Then the color will quickly fade. That's why I constantly move my eyes over a scene, comparing values and colors.” Emile Gruppe- Gruppe on Color.

A Fun Look Back at the Tubac, AZ Plein Air Workshop

The Tubac Plein Air Workshop has passed, but it was such a good workshop I thought I'd share some moments from the workshop with you. Thanks to those students that joined me this year, I enjoyed getting to know you all. I hope you get a chance to join me for the 2016 Workshop next year, it's a very special place to paint. Click below to enjoy a Scrapbook from the 2015 Tubac Plein Air Workshop.